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tues.12.mar.2013 Sponsored by
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Syria using militias for mass killings: UN
GENEVA: The Syrian regime appears to be using
local militias known as Popular Committees to carry
out sometimes sectarian mass killings in Syria, a UN
inquiry team says.
“In a disturbing and dangerous trend, mass killings
allegedly perpetrated by Popular Committees
have at times taken on sectarian overtones,” the
UN commission of inquiry, led by Brazilian Paulo
Pinheiro, said in an update to its latest report on the
situation in Syria, without giving concrete examples
of the killings.
The groups, it said, were frequently described as
Shabbiha militias and were reportedly being set
up to protect their neighbourhoods against anti-
government armed groups and criminal gangs.
But the groups, which according to defectors “mirror
the ethnic, religious and class composition of the
neighbourhoods they protect”, had evolved to
reinforce government forces, the report found, adding
their presence had been documented across Syria.
“Recently, the regime has begun to integrate the
Popular Committees along with other sympathising
groups in a new paramilitary force called the National
Defence Forces, institutionalising the existing
militias and organising them into an operational
structure,” it said.
The commission, which on Monday presented the
findings of its report published last month to the
UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said the past
two months had seen a rapid deterioration of the
situation in Syria.
Syrian ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoni,
meanwhile, lambasted the report, which he said was
full of errors and based on “testimonials... READ MORE
NEW YORK: A judge in New York has blocked Mayor
Michael Bloomberg’s planned ban on giant sodas, just a few
hours before restrictions on the sale of such drinks were due
to come into effect.
Judge Milton Tingling ruled that the measures to restrict
soda servings to a maximum of 470mm in fast-food and
other restaurants, was an “arbitrary” measure and he was
barring the plan “permanently”.
Monday’s decision is a defeat for Bloomberg, who had
trumpeted the measure as an important step toward
tackling obesity. READ MORE
Ban on ‘giant soda’ blocked
CANBERRA: Federal cabinet ministers insist the Labor
leadership was settled a year ago as nervous government MPs
meet ahead of parliament resuming today.
The latest Newspoll, published in The Australian, offers a
glimmer of hope for the government, with Labor and
Prime Minister Julia Gillard benefiting from a bounce in
voter support.
But Newspoll CEO Martin O’Shannessy says the government
faces a mammoth task to win the September 14 election.
“Julia Gillard has had a number of bounces that haven’t been
sustained,” he told Sky News. READ MORE
Gillard ministers play down need for change
CANBERRA: There is new hope of a vaccine to eventually
prevent the ugly and contagious facial cancer driving the
Tasmanian devil to extinction.
Contagious cancers that pass between individuals as
an infectious cell line are highly unusual pathogens,
researchers say in a paper in PNAS on Tuesday.
“Devil facial tumour is one such contagious cancer that
emerged 16 years ago and is driving the Tasmanian Devil to
extinction,” said the scientists, including Katherine Belov,
Professor of Comparative Genomics at the University of
Sydney. READ MORE
Scientists offer hope for the Tassie devil
Chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Pinheiro (right) and
commission member Carla del Ponte talking to the press after the presentation of their
report in Geneva yesterday. AFP photo
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